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The Importance of Detailed Retirement Planning in the Wake of COVID-19
The recent Fidelity Investments 2021 State of Retirement Planning Study notes that, as a result of the pandemic, 82% of surveyed Americans have been impacted negatively with respect to their retirement savings plans. A BrandPoint article posted on indexjournal.com elaborates on…
Support for Bipartisan Attention to the TRUST Act
The “Time to Rescue United States’ Trusts (TRUST) Act,” recently introduced by a bipartisan, bicameral contingent of congressional members, potentially opens the door for across-the-aisle cooperation on the financial dilemmas facing several major trust funds, most notably the Combined Social Security Old-Age…
Assessing How Social Security Benefit Cuts Could Affect You
The Social Security solvency problem has been discussed for years at this point, and there has been quite a bit of speculation about the potential for total reform before the trust funds are depleted. So far, though, there’s been no…
Senator Calls for SSA to Re-Open
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) today called for federal government offices to reopen in-person offices for services, citing complaints he’s received about constituents’ inability to make use of important government services, including Social Security. While some offices have begun phased re-openings, Hawley…
Myth-Busting Time: Three Persistent Illusions
Anyone looking ahead at their retirement financing needs to do some careful planning, and this should include taking a serious look at some of the long-standing folklore that can cause problems down the road. For example, there’s the false assumption that Social…
Unemployment Benefits and SSDI
While collecting unemployment benefits, it is also possible to collect Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) payments since the ‘Social Security offset” has been repealed. The details on this, as well as information on provisions for collecting unemployment along with Supplemental Security…
For Those Retiring Early: Barriers You’ll Need to Consider
If you’ve made the decision to exit the workforce early (like, for example, before your full retirement age), there are few key “barriers” you need to factor into your financial planning). They involve implications associated with IRA/401k withdrawals, Social Security…
Taxation of Social Security Benefits–An Explanation of the Guidelines
The Money Tips page of The Denison (IA) Bulletin Review recently posted an explanation of the manner in which Social Security benefits can become taxable at the federal level, along with a discussion of how to estimate the impending tax bite.…
Social Security: The Rules on Receipt of Your Benefits
Cash flow is an important–critical, in many cases–part of seniors’ financial management world. As a result, it is important to understand the scheduling of when benefit payments will be delivered from the Social Security Administration to them. Key timing elements,…
Income Taxes: The Often Overlooked Retirement Planning Piece
The Motley Fool’s Christy Bieber, in a post today on statesville.com’s Business page, covers the results of a recent Nationwide Financial survey and the conclusion that 41% of current retirees lament their overlooking the size of the bite that taxes can take out of…